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1422-26, Valois Ascendant

The year began with good news - outr ally cotinued to grow his French domain. England had accepted peace with Provence, receiving Maine in the bargain.

As 1422unfolded, however, the bad news continued. Efforts to relieve the Franche Comté failed and Saxony, Hessen, and Hannover besieged Bourgogne. We reached Pfalz but behind the English and so they controlled that siege.

We took some consolation that the pummeling that Austria was taken magnified. Venice and Mantua declared war upon Austria and Helvetia. Are our dynasties destined to rise and fall in concert?


Then, almost unnoticed at first, we received word in May of that year that our English allies had forged an alliance with Albania.

"Shockingly irrelevant," proclaimed Duke Philippe. However, Albania sent moral support by declaring war on our various enemies.

In June the English and Bretons exited the war with France that I had somewhat knavishly departed the previous year – Brittany took Picardy, cutting off France from any Channel access at all.

In July, the siege of Pfalz succeeded, and our English allies, having led the siege, took the opportunity to exit, accepting the former Archbishopric of Mainz in return. Although this effective freed Pfalz (and allies) to fight us alone (with our valuable Albanian ally), it did give us some comfort to know this was the same Mainz who had threatened us a year or so earlier, and had now been twice taken in war.

In September we renewed the siege of Pfalz, with some slow success, but in November, our great capital of Bourgogne fell yet again, to the Saxony, who began demanding that we cede our province of Holland. We refused anything but unconditional surrender TO US. Saxony declined this opportunity. Our pforce in Pfalz was pforced to pfind lodging pfurther a-pfield, and we decided to besiege Alsace, in hopes of restoring local control somewhere in the south. We also began recruiting local troops and mercenaries in Flanders and Artois, in preparation for resuming our attack on Pfalz. With Mainz no longer in the Palatinate, we foresaw a day when we could annex the Palatinate in revenge for their even ways.

Austria took another blow when Helvetia, it’s only ally, exited the war against the Hungarian alliance, taken Banat as its 30 piece of silver. Worse yet, Transylvania, a.k.a. Siebenbürgen joined the war on the same side as Hungary, Poland and Brandenburg in their war against Austria. Who could foresee such ignominy falling upon the great houses of Europe, Valois and Habsburg!

We used every month’s income and judicious war taxes, plus our excellent revenues from our COT in Flanders and our trade in Venice to generate a stream of army flooding south from our Netherlands provinces. Our treaty for military access with Luxembourg was paying dividends.

As 1423 rolled around, we purchased the services of another mercenary band and resume a two-front war, continuing our siege in Alsace and resuming the effort to invest Pfalz.

June 1, 1423 : Civil War in Castile. We note that much of the lands of Spain and France seem up in arms.

October 1, 1423 : We captured the province of Alsace from The Palatinate. Finally good news to send to our Duke! In fact, with the Pfalz successfully under siege, the leader of this alliance is in trouble. They still hold the Franche Comté, but with a small troupe. We send our Alsace forth south while beefing up our Pfalz forces and gradually wearing down their defense.

October 19, 1423 : The first assault on the Pfalzers fails – our troops retreat back to Alsace, and await fresh mercenaries when the January taxes are raised.

"January 7, 1424 : We captured the province of Pfalz from The Palatinate" Huzzah, and three cheers for the good Duke’s men. We now need only regain Franche Comté and the Palatinate will become known as the former Palatinate. Saxony reminds us of its demands for Holland and we take note that they must be punished for such insolence. We resolve to see Saxony erased much as Mainz from the pages of history.

Much of 1424 passed in quiet confidence of success. In February we began the siege to regain Franche Comté.

In July we learnt that Austria accepted peace with Venice on the following terms : Steiermark to Venice.

War Taxes and the regained Alsace led to better cash flow and we hired Günthers Band to take the war to the other enemies. On November 18, 1424 , Günthers initiated a siege in Hessen.

Just a month later, the great news reached the Duke who was wintering in Arras, we re-captured the Franche Comté from The Palatinate. With this, we controlled all of the Palatinate, who was army-less. In desperation they turned to our absentee ally, Albania, and bought peace with all of their cash and even with the offer of vassalization. It proved a short hegemony for Albania as we chose to annex the conquered Pfalz and incorporate it into our lands, opening up a path toward our Netherlandish provinces as well as to the other Germany states now quaking for fear of suffering their alliance’s (former) leader’s fate.

In the winter of 1424-25, attrition set in hard for the German defenders of our capital as we had cut their supply lines. It was time to free Bourgogne.

Sadly, the fates of Habsburg and Valois did not rise in the same synchonicity as the had fallen. As we ousted the Germans from Bourgogne and sought to retake our fair city of Dijon in Bourgogne, Austria accepted peace with Bavaria on the following terms : Ostmarch & Salzburg to Bavaria.

In April of 1425 : We chose to let bygones be bygones and entered a Royal Marriage with Luxembourg. Those two provinces could just as nicely ornament our crown through love as through fear. When the English alliance ceases to serve, perhaps we can convince Luxembourg to serve as Hainault had before it.

In June 16, 1425, we liberated Bourgogne from Saxony. Their plaintiff cries for Holland turned quickly to appeals for a Status Quo peace. We laughed and told them to mind their home provinces, for we would deal with them in good turn.

We continue to impress the world, and some nations cannot bear the thought of a Burgundy triumphant. To this end, Friesland sends us an warning not to go to war with their neighbors.

September 2, 1425 : Lithuania accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Krain to Lithuania. At this point, Austria consisted of only two provinces!

September 10, 1425 :The siege of Hessen is close to fruition and we send an advance force north to Hannover’s capital province (it also controls Oldenburg).

October 18, 1425 : We captured the province of Hessen from Hessen and as the herald proclaims: “Hessen accepted our generous peace offer" of outright annexation. We note with some sadness that our reputation is now somewhat tarnished internationally.


Seeing the fate of Hannover and Saxony to resemble that of the Palatinate and Hessen, Thuringen took the opportunity to break the Royal Marriage she had with Saxony and to declared war upon her former in-law. Baden joined the war on the same side as Thuringen in their war against Saxony, and they invaded Saxony itself.

Within two weeks, my Hessen force has split in two, one half heading to Hannover and the other half putting Saxony’s Anhalt under its watchful eye. We will gladly grant Saxony to Thuringen if it means the end of the rancid Saxon dynasty.

With the start of 1426, our income is now quite sizable, as we control the whole of our native Lands. Fearful of our growth, Kleves joins the chorus of those declaring they will not abide additional warmongering by us. We scoff, as is our wont.

January 25, 1426 : We are attacked hostile armies of Saxony in Anhalt.
January 27, 1426 : We won a battle against Saxony in Anhalt.
The end is nigh, fair Saxon princes.
May 8, 1426 : We captured the province of Anhalt from Saxony
May 20, 1426 : We captured the province of Hannover from Hannover

On May 29, 1426, we finally start to see an end to this war at last. From Hannover, we take Oldenburg – cut off from our other lands, somewhat, but reachable by sea. On July 1, 1426, with Thuringen close to taking its capital, the Saxons see the fruits of their folly -- Anhalt to Burgundy.

Peace at last, and peace on terms such that we own a contiguous stretch of land from Anhalt to Bourgogne, and need but one or two pieces to complete the puzzle that is our hope for a contiguous realm . Duke Philippe invites me to attend him as master of the bedchamber. The Duchess is also rather pleased by this turn of events.
 
"Shockingly irrelevant," proclaimed Duke Philippe. However, Albania sent moral support by declaring war on our various enemies.
:D

Yes, the ai still has its occasional moments of lunacy.

Great AAR!
 
Can you tell us how the Fortification garrison issue is in the beta? Is it like EU1 or did they change it?

As for mercs, i reckon only some provinces have them and they come in with a set number of men. Are they 'special' units, can you link them with normal troops?
 
I'm reluctant to discuss the GAME itself (as opposed to my progress as a player). Some things have to get mentioned, like I hired a merenary band. But I am not sure if we should be saying much about how we do that, what it's like, etc.

Unless Paradoz gives me the okay, I'd like to stay halfway between totally vague and totally transparent.

Andy

p.s. There will probably only be one more installment, as the most recent patch has altered the way games are saved, making my saved Burgundy game incompatible.
 
How do you 'hire' mercenaries??? Is it on a market or something, or what????
 
For what I see in AARs, it looks that you can hire them in provinces.
 
Maybe he plays a German Language version, those are the German names for them.
 
And was there any additional information about Castillian Civil War matter?